Is the Florida Department of Education Trying to Cover for Mistakes on School Grades? | Scathing Purple Musings

Is the Florida Department of Education Trying to Cover for Mistakes on School Grades? | Scathing Purple Musings:

Is the Florida Department of Education Trying to Cover for Mistakes on School Grades?

by Bob Sikes

Scott Maxwell mocked Florida State University for missing the mistakes in the DOE’s school grades that were released on July 11. But the DOE made no mention of FSU validating the DOE’s calculus in its press release. The involvement of FSU’s role was not made pubic until the DOE’s press release on July 20 when the mistakes and improvements in 213 school grades were announced:

Tallahassee, Fla., July 20, 2012 – Today the Florida Department of Education notified 40 superintendents around the state about preliminary revisions to the initial school grades released earlier this month. The A to F school grades report for Florida’s elementary, middle and combination schools (not including those with high school grades) was calculated by the department, validated independently by Florida State University, and released July 11.

Lets explore possible explanations and some troublesome items.
1. Florida State University’s involvement – and it’s still unclear whom at FSU ran the numbers – was innocent